Abstract:An emerging academic consensus contends that economic self-interest alone cannot explain individual attitudes towards immigration in rich democracies. A recent welter of studies points to some combination of “sociotropic”concern for the nation’s overall economy, generalized worries about fiscal drain, and/or fear of a dilution of cultural “purity” interacting with specific concerns about competition for wages or jobs (c.f. Hanson, Scheve, and Slaughter 2007; Mansfield and Mutz 2009; Hainmueller and Hiscox 2010; Tingley 2013; Malhotra, Margalit, and Mo 2013; Dancygier and Donnelly 2013; Goldstein and Peters 2014). Our study adds support to this psychologically-inflected view, finding that in Japan, as elsewhere, skilled workers prefer skilled immigrants to low-skilled immigrants. A preference for skilled immigrants, which is not unique to Japan but is common across rich countries, poses a double challenge to the standard tenets of neoclassical economics since low-skilled workers, provided they are not net welfare recipients, should both contribute to the economy as a whole and be less threatening to the jobs and wages of native high skilled workers. Although more research is needed to trace and verify the mechanisms, our findings are consistent with a socially constructed “sociotropic xenophobia”for electoral gain and business success.

Biography：Frances McCall Rosenbluth is a comparative political economist with a special interest in Japan. Her recent publications include The Political Economy of Japan’s Low Fertility (Stanford 2007, edited); Japan Transformed: Political Change and Economic Restructuring (Princeton 2010, with Michael Thies); War and Statebuilding in Medieval Japan (Stanford 2010, co-edited with John Ferejohn); Women, Work, and Power (2010 Yale, with Torben Iversen); and Tug of War: Military Conflict and the Democratic Bargain (Norton forthcoming, with John Ferejohn).

Organizer:Institue of Social Sciences (Contemporary Japan Group)Co-Organizer:Todai-Yale InitiativeContact：Mitani Miyuki (Institue of Social Sciences)mitani.miyuki[at]mail.u-tokyo.ac.jp